This project has been a long time in the making. Even before Kolter and I started dating I’ve always had either my DSLR or my iPhone in his face wanting to document every single second together – he has learned to shut up and put up with this.
I found out about Shutterfly picture books in the most glamorous way possible, by winning a coupon with our KFC family pack dinner. We’re an extremely high maintenance couple as I’m sure you’ve gathered.

I saw a blog post made by Jenny Collier for Everyday Cheer where she shared her annual Family Year Book. I thought it was the cutest tradition, and decided to try it out for Kolter and I. Since I’m about 4 years too late to start chronicling every year, I decided that our first book will be a summary of our school years, since we met back in the first semester of university…

After searching through 4 years, 2 external harddrives, 2 Facebook accounts, 3 cellphone and and 1 iPhoto account’s worth of images, I finally narrowed it down to my favourite … let’s say 300 or so images. (I told you, I have my camera in his face often).

Shutterfly is incredibly easy to use, so no prior Photoshop or html experience is necessary. I simply collected all of my image files into one folder on my desktop and was able to upload all of the images straight from the folder onto the Shutterfly website. I enjoyed using Shutterfly to make my photobooks so much that I have no problem recommending them to all of my friends and family, and now you (and using my affiliate link) The one issue that you might run into is the fact that Shutterfly (and most photo book softwares) only accepts images in .jpg formats, so if you have any .png or .gif (for whatever reason… who prints a gif?) you’ll need to save it in a .jpg format before adding it to your book.

There are a dozens of themes and templates for your photo book to choose from, or you can start from scratch by creating your own layout. For my first time around I decided to use one of the preloaded ‘romantic themed’ layouts, cause I’m gangsta like that.

It was literally as simple as choosing which layout I wanted for each page (1 picture, 6 pictures + text, 10 pictures with no text) and dragging the photos onto the page. Done.

I customized it with some of our inside jokes and short notes. In the end I went with a glossy, 20page, 8×8 hardcover and added a memorabilia pocket so that I can store tickets, notes and any other memorabilia moving forward.

I’ve seen some really cool photo book ideas that I’m going to try out for future books:

+ Annual Family Year Books
+ Collection of Instgram Images
+ Vacation/Holiday photo book
+ Event Recap
+ Burn Book for you and your best friend (think less Mean Girls and more 21st Century Scrapbooking)
+ I’m even thinking about of career photo book ideas to use as more of a portfolio/resume

4 comments on “Photo book Ideas: A Gift For Both of Us”

This is a super cute idea! Since I am a fan of the outdoors, a photo book of adventures outdoors with a significant other sounds super romantic to me. There goes my hopelessly romantic brain again. *Le sigh*

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Dominique

I'm Dominique! Content Marketer, New Wife, Old School R&B. I geek out over productivity books and camera equipment. I'm also a huge fan of Pinterest, shots that taste like candy, and daily youtube vloggers.